Crossing Fates,Emerging Secrets: The Encased Souls
by Crimson Ventus
Summary: One rumored quest leads to an enthralling yet rocky journey, uncovering secrets that are still beneath mankind. This is an adventure-based story which involves a variety of 3rd job characters! Rated T for language from some of the characters' mouths.


Hey there peeps,

I know an author's notes seem really avoidable but I'd ABSOLUTELY appreciate it if you could read mine for a bit! =D

First off, this story isn't only mine but it also belongs to two of my friends. We created the plot and will write this story together. This fanfiction features all of our characters in servers we've played in, but most of them are 3rd jobs in a current server.

This story is based on the Ragnarok Online universe. It's light-hearted and humorous but it can be serious at the same time. There will be a total of four prologues, each focusing on characters different than the previous one. Well, let's not keep you waiting for too long! I hope all of you readers would take a liking to our story.

Please enjoy!

* * *

Prologues

Infuriating the colour Black

An isolated, nameless island stands alone to the west of Umbala. The only means of stepping foot on the murky island is by water transportation. Situated in the middle of it is a huge, long-abandoned building where most lower class professions would avoid. This is because there are too many inhabitants that live in and out of the vicinity which makes it too dangerous for them to farm or hunt. It is now home to various undead creatures and a place widely known as the Cursed Monastery. However, brave and strong warriors sometimes hunt in the abbey for its equipments and goods that can be sold at a high price, a couple of certain young men were no exceptions…

In the dark area of Abbey, two figures are seen running away from a huge gang of angry and ferocious mobs.

"AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH," their screams echoed throughout the corners of the huge hall.

Zaikuro is running as fast as he could while carrying a backpack filled with miscellaneous items such as amulets, torn magic books and old white cloths that are needed for certain quests whereas his partner, Axentrio is carrying the valuables and extras.

They were being chased by Banshees, Flame Skulls, Necromancers and his minions. Basically, all kinds of monsters that reside in the deepest, inner section of Abbey are on their tail, with a whole lot of them to boot.

"Damn mobs, they just keep growing in numbers no matter which direction we run to." Zaikuro was out of SP and feeling restless.

"Way to keep running Zai, you fairly well know you'll meet some along the way." Axentrio, who was following a step behind the white haired warlock, commented breezily.

"Well then, do something you useless sorcerer," huffed the irritated man.

The young man in his puffy and fluffy sorcerer uniform crooked his eyebrow at that reply. "I've told you I just reset my skills but nooooo, you dragged me in here before I even got the chance to add them up," he said sarcastically.

Deep inside, the aloof warlock sighed. He knew Axentrio well and got used to his carefree personality. "Isn't there any sorcerer skills that you've added recently?" he asked hastily.

"I've already said I-oh yeah!" The sorcerer stopped immediately in his tracks to turn towards the turbulent mass and raised both his hands, ready to cast the spell. "Marilyn Extreme!"

A gust of wind quickly formed into a tornado between the two mercenaries and few of the ghostly shrieking women who were at the front of the batch.

"Aahh look at those banshees, they look so cute in there," the caster said while standing there looking at them with amusement.

"Seriously? Marilyn Extreme?" A dubious expression was clearly plastered on the onlooker's face as he eyed the half-witted man beside him.

"Of course I'm serious. It's my new naming hobby."

"And why is it Marilyn?" He didn't want to know because he can feel it in his guts and he's almost certain that the reason would be something royally ridiculous, but he was curious nonetheless.

"Aw, come on. Don't tell me you really don't know the sexiest women in her generation, Marilyn Monroe?" He waited for an answer or a repulsive remark but it never came. "Vacuum Extreme's wind pressure is strong enough to lift up a lady's skirt, no? So I named it after the cultural icon. Aren't I creative?" he explains while flattering himself with his new-found naming prowess.

'_Sheesh, how perverted can he get? Flirting with every single woman on sight wasn't enough for him__?'_

Zaikuro quickly snapped out of those irking thoughts as he noticed that the wind wasn't as strong as before and the size of the tornado is slowly diminishing.

"Hey, kill them, now!"

"With what?" Axen retorted. "My amazing fire bolts?" he continued, "Or the great Zaikuro can't do a thing against a bunch of mid-ranked undead."

The warlock scowled, "You do realize it's your fault that all of these happened in the first place?"

* * *

-10 minutes ago-

A group of necromancers were annihilated in one go. Zaikuro realized his SP is running extremely low as he picked up the loots; he was overweight for quite some time now.

"Looks like I'm almost out of juice." He shrugs off the predicament and thought, '_this is the reason why I hate carrying items around_.'

"Did you just notice that? I've been overweight ever since you passed me another load of your rubbish thirty minutes ago," said Axen.

The warlock closed his eyes and exhales. "That's because you're a sorcerer, now hurry up with the SP already."

"What..?" Axen asked with a confused look on his face.

"…don't make me repeat myself."

He wiped his monocle while trying to comprehend what Zaikuro said and put it back into place. "Ahh you mean Soul Change, the interchange of essence between two people, so much feelings are exchanged, so much passion, so much- ," he got cut off by a brusque tone.

"What the hell are you talking about? Get to the point." Zai was getting impatient because he knew his partner's babble would go on forever if nobody stops him, he wanted to get the job done and over with as soon as possible.

"It means I am NOT doing it with a man," he clasps both his hands on each opposite arms and made a shivering gesture. "Even the thought of it is disgusting."

At this instant, Zai wanted so much to knock him on his head with a rod and leaves him there on the floor in the middle of the gloomy monastery to be killed and rot. He decides to spare him seeing he was his long-time partner. "How did you end up becoming my comrade is beyond me..."

"Alright, alright, here." He hands a long blue rectangular object to his partner.

Zaikuro looks at it in bemusement, "What the heck is this thing?"

"It's called an SP bar, now take it," said Axentrio as he blinked at the slightly taller male.

They stared at each other for a few seconds.

The idea of beating him to a pulp was filling up in the warlock's head again. '_I'm so gonna kill him one of these days_.' He broke off the staring competition by smacking away the fake SP bar from his moronic future victim's hands.

"Stop fooling around before we get into trouble."

Unfortunately, the blue bar flew into the air and landed on a group of mobs on the other side of the hallway.

"..."

"RUN!"

* * *

-Present-

"Aaaand it's your fault too," Axentrio said defensively with his arms crossed.

"Do you have a death wish?"

It wasn't exactly a question from the way he said it._ 'He's definitely implying "I'll kill you if you agitate me further"_.'

"Fine, fine, hold on a sec-"

A sudden loud bang from the necromancer's staff brought their attention towards the trapped mobs which are now breaking free from the weakened spell, causing the two of them to flee again. The duo then realized they were heading towards a dead end.

Zaikuro immediately stretch out his left hand towards his exhausted partner. "Axen, I have an idea. Pass me some blue gemstones."

"No problem-o." A few small sapphire gemstones appeared on his palm as he lightly threw it to Zai.

"Here's my last bit of SP."

The warlock murmured something to himself and instantly a pinkish shade of safety wall was formed around him.

"BASTARD!" was all the poor sorcerer could yell at him before the persistent mobs shifted their attention to the unguarded target.

Zai took this chance to search around his backpack for something specific. He had just stashed in carelessly all the useful items before going to the nameless island and now it's mixed in with all the other items. A couple of blue potions were yanked out of the bag, and he quickly downs the dark blue liquid in one smooth gulp.

'_Now that they're focused on Axen, I can cast this and wipe them all out in one shot…'_

Zaikuro begin charging up his spell for crimson rock, sparks of fire were surrounding his palms. However, instead of them turning into reddish orange flames, the sparks died out and puff of smokes were in its place. The gifted third class magician got confused for a while and looked down, much to his annoyance. Right under his feet was a pool of sky blue Deluge which boosts up water-based spells but weakens fire-based spells considerably… There is only person in the universe that would do such foolish things under these dire circumstances.

He looked back up when he heard Axentrio bellowing nonsense as he runs towards him. "What now jerk? What are ya gonna do now?"

'_Ah that exasperated look on his face. Revenge is so sweet,' _thought the satisfied troublemaker. _'Wait a minute...' _As he takes a closer look, a curve was forming on the side of Zai's mouth.

"Asshole, as if this petty trick would stop me." After the declaration, a huge black menacing aura surrounded the area and they could feel the danger surging from its conjurer, shocking everyone. In lieu of the initial sparks, his palms are now forming and surrounded by an elegant, icy blue flow of water and ice.

"Frost Misty!"

The entire area was covered in freezing mist and the mobs were stopped in its tracks as they continuously take damage. Some of them even got inflicted with the Freezing status which slows down their speed movements, but that wasn't enough to kill them off.

"Damn, and here I thought getting killed by banshees wasn't such a bad idea," said the sorcerer deliberately.

"I'm not done yet." He amplified his magical power and then proceeds with another spell. This time, sharp glistening icicles were forming around his body.

"Wait, stop, Zai if you do that…at least let me get awa-"

"Get ready for your deaths. All of you!" The infuriated warlock raised his right arm and unleashed the spell with full force.

"JACK FROST!"

Huge, spiky icicles were unleashed in all different directions, piercing through the targets and dealing heavy damage. It did not miss a single one, the sorcerer included, all from the wrath of a warlock.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO"

* * *

When everything is finally over…

In a town, an old merchant was thanking Zaikuro for collecting the quest items for him and paid the warlock his share.

Whispers could be heard softly behind him. The citizens recognized him as the talented black magician who was given the title of Zaikuro, an official title he earned from the Magic Academy when he was still a student there. Not to mention, he was an eye candy to the girls despite his cool exterior and unapproachable presence.

A ragged up sorcerer with cuts everywhere on his outfit could be seen sitting on one of the tables as Zai stepped into a coffee shop to join him.

"Ah..what a rough day we had. I barely dodged my way out of those icicle shards! But it's a good thing you had that spell ready, otherwise we'll be raped by banshees," Axentrio said casually while holding onto his filled cup. "Not that I really mind," he added.

Zaikuro did not want to hear that from him, after all the trouble of escaping from that hellhole and then rowing themselves back to the port has drained them physically."You still have the nerve to talk huh?" he taunted while glaring at the man with red hair. The sorcerer flinched at his invisible intimidating aura yet again that seems to fill the atmosphere around him, even the customers in the shop were all backing away.

'_Crap, he's still pissed about the incident__.' _He definitely did not want to experience his partner's icy retribution twice in a mere few hours.

"Ah..anyway, anyway…this place sure is peaceful isn't it?"

"….."

"It's been a while since I've seen smiling citizens who are living quietly and peacefully," he chuckled. "Comodo is such a joyful city, full of parties and events every so often." He paused to drink his bitter looking hot beverage. "Aaaa how I wish I was also a normal citizen, and I might even get myself a wife in the future!" the sorcerer declared as he rips a packet of sugar to add into his espresso.

"Hn..what first appears as peaceful on the outside to the majority, it's likely a false interpretation without them even knowing it," said Zai after taking a sip of his own coffee.

"Why so negative?"

"And you're positive?"

"Hmm..I can't say that I'm really that much of a peace-lover," he admitted. "Even though coffee tastes best with the right amount of sugar, it might be better if I add different kinds of substance too, just to see how it goes."

"I enjoy stirring them up," Brown sugar, cream, normal sugar and milk were all added into his now light brownish, cream-coloured espresso rather than the usual dark reddish-brown foam.

"You have bad taste there, Axen," Zai commented as he watched his partner stir his beverage carefully.

"Hmm? Really? There are worse though." After drinking a mouthful of it, he cringed at the horrible combination of flavors and accidentally chucked his cup onto the table. "Huuyaaaaa~~~," he cried out, trying to get rid of the after-taste.

"I told you…" said Zai as a white, specially trained delivery pigeon landed on his shoulder, with a letter held in its beak.

"What can I say, the same things aren't interesting, are they?" Axen queried, wiping off the remaining trickles of coffee on his mouth at the same time.

"Gotta change it once in a while," he continued while the warlock reads the newly arrived letter silently.

Zaikuro smirked. "Hmph… Maybe…"

The spilled coffee cup laid there idly on top of the table, most of its contents flowed out while part of its rim seems to be chipped off...

* * *

*Me doing a dogeza* I sincerely apologize if there is any grammar or common English or any mistakes at all, and also the informal/abbreviated English in some dialogues. And for those who are not familiar with 3rd job professions. Here is a list of skills they used in this chapter:

Sorcerer - Vacuum Extreme

Warlock - Crimson Rock, Frost Misty, Jack Frost

In case you are unfamiliar with those skills, check it out. =)

Please, please review if you liked it and want more! Constructive criticisms are very welcome. That's all for now, do stay tune for the next prologue!


End file.
